Although I was already dozing at 6:12am this morning something starting banging about on the roof. It soon stopped so I started to doze off again until the banging on the patio started. It was so loud it managed to wake Tracy and judging by the snores that was no mean feat! I peered out the window just in time to see a blue jay flying off into the trees. It had clearly been smashing a snail on the roof, patio and possibly the wall as well, judging by the noise it made. Anyway, Tracy went back to snoring while I caught up on all the latest English transfer gossip!
Just after 8am, the boys started yapping away above us and eventually Tracy stirred. As I had been for a run for the last couple of mornings, and I’d eaten a lot, I felt a bit guilty and decided to go for a run along the cycle path towards Tofino. On the way I saw some fat yellow slugs with brown splodges which are banana slugs. I will have to bring the boys up here to see them one morning because they are quite interesting! As I plodded my way 3 miles towards Tofino and back again Tracy had a nice cup of tea in the hot tub which with hindsight seems a much more sensible thing to do. The only downside was that two naked boys appeared and hopped in the tub (Harry and Toby, just to clarify!).
After a quick shower it was time to go to the hotel part of the hotel and have breakfast. Double helpings of granola, cinnamon rolls, fruit, yoghurt and stuff was all washed down with orange, water and coffee and before you know it it’s 11am and time for the day to really start.
Having dipped our toes in the sea yesterday we knew Harry needed a wetsuit to have any chance of playing in the water and surviving! Everybody else had one but he’d grown too much since our holiday in Pembrokeshire about 6 years ago. So with this purchase in mind we set off down the road to Ucluelet (pronounced you-clue-let). I had secret high hopes about Ucluelet and getting some awesome eagle photos, but I shouldn’t have got my hopes up as I didn’t see any just a few deer walking around through peoples gardens.
We did however take the chance to book our bear watching tour for tomorrow morning and we found Harry a nice full length wet suit.
Next stop was a beach. We’re pretty spoilt for choice here, there appear to be fab beaches everywhere, even though today they were covered in fog. We plumped for North Chesterman beach, parked the car and took all our gear down to the beach. The boys put their wet suits on and started playing soccer! After a while they got their new skim board out and decided to give the skim boarding a go. It wasn’t quite as easy as they thought and it mostly ended with one or other of them rolling around in the shallows. It also included weeing in their wetsuits in various poses!
httpv://youtu.be/8UhFuNFwioU
Soon after it was time to get the body boards out and hit the surf. I got into my wetsuit and went down to supervise. I thought it would be cold but nothing prepared me for how cold it really was! It was like getting into what I imagine an ice bath is like, only colder! I’ve never been in sea as cold as that, wowsers! However with a some time the acclimatisation process kicked in and before we knew it the three of us were splashing about surfing in to shore on the waves. Toby was practising, as it was his first time, and he was perfecting the art of timing his dive onto the wave, and was getting pretty good at it.
We kept picking our waves and zooming into shore and every now and then it almost felt like the water had a few warm bits in it! That feeling didn’t last long though and it soon returned to cold, cold water!! After an hour or so it was time to return back to the beach and warm up, in the fog! All those times we’ve laughed at people sitting on the beach in the fog and now here we were doing the same thing and commenting on how pleasant and warm it felt!!
As the fog started to get really thick and the clock ticked round to 4pm we decided to head back home and de-sand ourselves. After showers and baths, we had a drink, some crisps (long lost smokey bacon flavour) and nuts before heading down to the hotel restaurant for some well deserved food. Halibut, prawns, pasta and fries were all washed down with some Canadian wine, some ice wine, ice-cream, truffles and a giant slice of humble berry pie and then, all stuffed, we walked down to the beach, in the fog, so Toby could make his driftwood sculpture and take a photo of it. Then it was back to the cottage, for a nice dip in the hot tub before settling down to the final episode of the Bachelorette.
Day one in Tofino, done. Today was the coldest sea ever. Tomorrow could be bears! Fingers crossed.